148 FRUIT FARMING 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



DISEASES AND PESTS OF FRUIT TREES, ETC., 

 AND THEIR REMEDIES. 



In compiling these few notes upon some of the 

 more common Plant Diseases, the Author wishes to 

 emphasize the fact that, useful as he trusts they may 

 prove to many, some knowledge of the conditions 

 necessary to ensure health is far more important. 



By way of preface, therefore, a few notes upon 

 these subjects are appended : 



" Take care of the roots and the tree will take care 

 of itself," will be a useful motto for all interested in 

 Fruit Culture. However favourable the conditions may 

 be above ground, it is useless to expect success if the 

 soil is not in a healthy and suitably porous state for 

 root growth. 



Wounds of all kinds offer an easy entrance for spores, 

 and should be at once smoothly pared down round the 

 edges and painted with Blight Cure (No. i). This 

 will in Apples for example, prevent the spores of 

 canker, and the American Blight (No. i) from gaining 

 a foothold from which it may be difficult to dislodge 

 them. Winter spraying should be considered as quite 

 an indispensable part of garden routine and will kill 

 thousands of larvae eggs, insects wintering under the 

 crevices of the bark as well as fungus spores. It 

 cannot be too strongly emphasized that cleanliness in 

 culture is absolutely essential to the health of trees. 



